New Delhi, May 30
As expected and for reasons of continuity, Cabinet Secretary B.K. Chaturvedi has been granted a year’s extension as the country’s top-most civil servant till the middle of June 2007.
Mr Chaturvedi, an IAS officer of the 1966 batch of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, succeeded Kamal Pande as Cabinet Secretary in June 2004. He will have completed his two-year term as Cabinet Secretary on June 13.
The order was issued after the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh cleared the extension of tenure for Mr Chaturvedi, who is heading several committees of secretaries overseeing the implementation of various time-bound and ambitious socio-economic programmes of the Congress-led UPA government.
Five other senior IAS officers whose names were doing the rounds for the next Cabinet Secretary are Union Finance Secretary Adarsh Kishore, Union Home Secretary V.K. Duggal, Women Development Secretary Reva Nayyar, Executive Director in the World Bank Dhanendra Kumar and a perceived nominee of the Left — Union Commerce Secretary S.N. Menon.
